page_title: Hendrick van den Broeck
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Hendrick van den Broeck / Life
context_page_description: Hendrick van den Broeck or Arrigo Fiammingo was a Flemish painter, fresco painter, glass painter and sculptor of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period. After training in Flanders, he travelled to Italy where he remained active in various cities for the remainder of his life. He was court painter to Cosimo I de Medici in Florence and worked as a fresco painter in Rome on the large decorative projects of pope Gregory XIII.
context_section_description: Hendrick van den Broeck was born in Mechelen as the son of Hendrick van den Broeck, of whom it is not known whether he was an artist. His family also used the latinized name 'Paludanus'. The latinized name is based on the Latin translation ('palus') of the Dutch word 'broeck' which is part of the family and means a marsh or swamp land. His family members included artists who were active in Mechelen.   He was a brother of the sculptor Willem van den Broecke and the painters Joris and Pieter. The painter Chrispijn van den Broeck was likely a relative.
  Hendrick was a pupil of Frans Floris. Frans Floris was one of the Romanist painters active in Antwerp.  The Romanists were Netherlandish artists who had trained in Italy and upon their return painted in a style that assimilated these Italian influences into the Northern painting tradition.
  Around 1557 van den Broecke moved to Italy.  Here he would remain for the remainder of his life working in many different cities. It has been speculated that his frequent moves from one city to the other were motivated by his financial difficulties.  In the years 1557 and 1558 he was in Florence where he worked mainly as a glass painter on commissions for Duke Cosimo I de Medici and his court. The Flemish priest Adriaan de Witte who was chaplain of the guard of the Duke played a role in calling van den Broeck to the Ducal court. He principally worked on glass paintings. He was commissioned to paint four glass windows in the Sala degli Elementi (Room of the Elements} in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Adriaan de Witte provided the iconographic program of the glass windows, which included allegories of Envy, Justice and Victory, with mottoes in Latin.  The program was approved by the duke. The windows themselves were lost on an unknown date. Van den Broeck subsequently worked on glass paintings in the monastery complex of San Lorenzo. In the meantime many monuments and buildings had come under the supervision of Cosimo's court. In 1558 van den Broeck supplied painted windows for the choir and the sacristy of San Lorenzo and also the Biblioteca Laurenziana.  He remained active at this location until the early 1560s and worked there alongside another Flemish painter referred to as Gualtieri di Giovanni Battista Fiammingo.
  While employed by the Ducal court the young Hendrick was involved in an incident. He was provided with a supply of precious glass by the court. He had used part of the glass for other purposes without official permission. He had been forced to do so out of necessity as the court was slow in paying him for his work. Van den Broeck's employment at the court was in peril when the court investigated the matter of the missing glass. Adriaan de Witte helped him sort out the matter with the court. Witnessed the Ragionamenti of Vasari, Adrian's plan was subsequently also implemented. Hendrick may have been accompanied in Florence and Rome by his brother Willem.
  In Florence, he had the greatest trouble keeping his income and expenses in balance and providing for himself.  He left for Rome where he worked for a few years. In 1561 he entered into a contract with the Opera of Orvieto Cathedral to provide decoration of the new altars in the nave.  In 1565, he finally ruled out the possibility of creating the works himself on site.  He suggested that his associate Niccolò Circignani paint the frescoes of one of the chapels while he would paint the altarpiece in Rome, where he was then residing.  In the end Circignani also painted the altarpiece onsite.
  He was commissioned in 1561 by Ranuccio Farnese, abbot commendatory of Farfa Abbey to paint a Last Judgement. Van den Broecke created a large canvas painting on the subject, which was influenced by Michelangelo's treatment of the same subject in the Sistine Chapel. This is particularly visible in the contorted bodies which are muscular and in an exalted state.  The influence of the Venetian school is also visible in the nudes. He worked for the first time in Perugia in 1562.  Upon his return to Rome he searched for a new formula to get the a
caption: Saint Bernard of Siena preaching
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